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(FM11) 10,000km away from home: a first venture into the world of South American football

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(FM11) 10,000km away from home: a first venture into the world of South American football

Well, it finally happened. After running out of steam on my last thread (largely due to a little self loathing of being at such a big club) I've eventually decided on a new destination for my latest FM adventure.

My FM destinations are normally quite predictable. I've always liked the idea of taking a small club up from the bottom and establishing themselves as a force, normally in England, or every now and then in Italy. I decided it was time to move completely out of my comfort zone, somewhere I've never set foot in, somewhere with a completely different football culture to immerse myself in. Therefore, I've packed my bags and left dear old Blighty for the sights and sounds of South America.

I'm not going to set myself any goals at all in this career, just aim to start at the bottom somewhere and see where it gets me. I'm pleased to see there aren't too many South American based careers on here, so I'll be walking pretty much blind. Always the best way to go...

Anyway, the details:

FM11.3 with no edits
Leagues loaded from Argentina (Second Division and above) Brazil (Third Division and above) Columbia (Second Division and above) Chile (First Division B and above) Uruguay (Second Division and above) Peru, USA and Mexico (Promotion League) For good measure I've also added England, Portugal and Italy, although they're simply to ensure the reality of the better players in South America getting picked up by big European clubs happens, but are largely unimportant to me.
48,000 players, medium database

Oh, and to make things more interesting I'm going to pick my club with the random button. Really do love that button!

Club Almirante Brown (mostly known simply as Almirante Brown) is an Argentine football club from Isidro Casanova in the Greater Buenos Aires, currently playing in the Primera B Nacional, the second level of Argentine football league system.

Club history

The club was founded on January 17, 1922, with the name Centro Atlético y Recreativo Almirante Brown. The team played in Primera B Nacional between the 1986-87 and 1997-98 seasons, reaching its highest position ever in the 1991-92 season, when Almirante finished 2nd in the table. The club was within one game of obtaining the promotion to play in the Primera División, however Almirante lost the final against San Martín de Tucumán.

In May 2007 Almirante Brown became Primera B Metropolitana Clausura champion, after beating Estudiantes de Buenos Aires in the final match. The fixture was marred by violence and Almirante Brown was forced to start the following season in B Nacional with -18 points as punishment. This punishment eventually saw the team relegated despite a number of good performances which would have seen it finished in 3rd place without the points deduction.

So It’s been a busy start to life in Argentina, and plenty of players have arrived at the club in the opening weeks. There was certainly a decent bedrock of talent when I arrived at the club, but with such a generous budget it’d have been pretty silly of me not to use it to use it. The first decision when I arrived though was whether to sack my awful assistant manager even if it would cost me £70,000 to do so. In the end his awful player advice got to me, and so he was the first casualty of the new regime. I brought in a much better assistant for half the wage, as well as 2 new scouts, 1 new physio, a new youth coach and two ordinary coaches. Then it was off on a player hunt.

The rules in Argentina state that no more than 4 players in a match squad can be foreign, so I’ve set out a plan of only signing Argentine players unless I find an absolute beast, so right now only two players don’t qualify for the national side (and one of those was here when I arrived.) The board announced Lanus as our parent club without me asking, which is fine by me, although they have very little talent I can steal on loan. Hopefully that'll change as the career goes on. We've also appointed Third Division side Los Anders as our feeder club, which has allowed me to send a couple of youngsters out on loan.

Coming in then have been no fewer than 10 players, all of them on a free. They are:

I'm still in the process of trying to clear some deadwood, although with such a huge amount of spare cash in the wage budget I'm in no great rush. Not really sure who the key players will be for me this year, although the two strikers who were already at the club both look pretty handy. I'll keep you all posted as the season pans out.

I've also been in for one of my favourite players in the world, attacking midfielder Gustavo Lorenzetti (plays for Universidad de Chile in RL) and although he's interested I can't agree a deal. YET. Again, I'll keep you posted, especially as my current (excellent) AM has 12 months left on his contract and has point blank refused to sign a new one.